Life in the Scriptures has a new format that will spend a Year in the New Testament, in a book-by-book journey reading one chapter per day. This approach enables busy people to have daily Bible readings, and to increase their familiarity with the people, places, and teachings of the New Testament. It is a profitable and helpful Bible study method. May God bless it to you.

June 8, 2011

Revelation chapters 1-19 have shown the conquest of Jerusalem and the fall of the Roman Empire. Though history to us, these events were far in the future when John wrote the Revelation. But chapters 20-22 leap into events that are future to us also. Chapter 20 shows the Millennial Age and the fate of the wicked on Judgment Day. They have followed Satan, the great deceiver, they have resisted God, and they have persecuted His people since Cain killed Abel. Now their end is come upon them and they follow the deceiver to his doom, and theirs. Chapter 21 shows the future happiness of the Church. Here we see God bring the days of earth to an end and bring His people to their eternal bliss in a new heaven and earth (21:1). "New" means a new and different kind of heaven and earth, for the old is passed away. In verse 2 we see the new Jerusalem, the holy city, the city of peace. She comes as a bride adorned for her husband. This city is a symbol of the Church (Rev. 19:7-9), but it is also a symbol of God. In it God and His people dwell together in perfect unity and joy. All the suffering of earth, the persecutions, the disease, the sorrows and tears are wiped away by God Himself. They passed away with the old earth. There is no place for them in the new.

Thus God says, "It is done" (21:6). Not done in the sense of being ended, God is telling us His great work is now fully accomplished. All enemies have been put under His feet. The corruption and decay of the physical creation has been ended. The Church has been gathered unto Him and lives in Him literally, face to face. All of the promises and hopes of His people have been fulfilled, and all of the plans and purpose of God have been brought into their fullest possible state of being. The story, the work of redemption is completed, but the state, the condition of redemption is a present reality forever and forever. Everything the Bible tells us about exists in absolute fullest perfection in Rev. 21:6. It is hard to put this into words, for we use superlatives to describe things that are meaningless in comparison to what God is doing in this verse, but it may not be too much to say "It is done" are some of the most important words in all of Scripture.

Verses 7 and 8 take us back to the first century Christians to whom Revelation was first addressed. But the words apply to all Christians of all times. Who will dwell in the New Jerusalem? Who will see the fulfillment of everything he has prayed for and longed for since the day he first knelt at the foot of the cross and gave his heart to Christ? "He that overcometh." He shall inherit these things. They are for those who overcome the world through faith. They are for those who overcome their enemies by remaining faithful to Christ. They are for those who live for Christ at all times and at all costs. They are not for those who turn back. They are not for those who call themselves Christians but live like the devil. They not for the unfaithful. They are for those who are faithful to the end.

A Prayer for Biblical Understanding

Blessed Lord, who hast caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning; Grant that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience and comfort of thy holy Word, we may embrace, and ever hold fast, the blessed hope of everlasting life, which thou hast given to us in our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.